The films you saw, the reviews you loved, the people you watched and hopefully a few discoveries for your watchlist. Let’s go!
Read more about the Year in Review on our blog.
Utterly moving, melancholic, vibrant, wistful and hilarious … a visual masterwork that is as vital as anything released this year. — Account removed
Heart-breaking, life-affirming, glorious documentary on the life of film critic Roger Ebert. It's impossibly hard to look at, and unconscionable to not have seen. —
Devon Torrey Bryant
A tour de force of exquisite watercolors, simple yet uniquely intricate depictions of the intrinsic beauty and wonder found in nature. … The fact that this film has an imaginative, heartfelt narrative is simply a bonus, really. —
Rakestraw
It’s an origin story, but the kind that doesn’t linger too much on the characters’ backstories. The protagonists are defined by their actions in the moment rather than their pasts (smart move), and this is ultimately why the viewer ends up caring about them. —
Jared Gores
Rather than craft a film about a shadowy monster that haunts a mother and her son, Jennifer Kent has created a brilliantly symbolic psychodrama that is both frightening and poignant, a commentary on grief/loss, chemical dependence and interpersonal relationships. —
Eli Hayes
After I left the theater, I needed a huge drink of water to cool myself down because I was totally amped. Just WOW! I seriously can’t put the last 30 minutes into words. … A game changer for action films. —
Evan
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“This is one of those movies where a guy is stuck in a time loop. And every time he redoes something, he learns a little. It’s also the rare summer blockbuster that is very well-written; funny, smart, and it all actually makes sense. Tom Cruise is a little miscast as a coward who becomes an unlikely savior … but, as usual, he delivers a charismatic and fully committed performance.”
“As a parent, witnessing a child’s shaping of a past for an unknown future was a truly gripping experience. I felt constantly involved. It reminded me both of my youth and of my struggles and fears as a parent. Life isn’t about the big moments alone, it’s predominantly about the small moments, the fleeting moments that you’d want to hold on to forever in retrospect or regret experiencing or causing.”
“Ever since I joined Letterboxd, nothing has scared me more than the idea of trying to write about 2001: A Space Odyssey. … So with the knowledge that I will probably never be able to fully encapsulate what makes this my favorite movie of all time—let alone say something truly unique about it—here is a small list of a few things I love about it.”
“I adore science fiction because it is a way to travel to distant worlds, a way to explore the unimaginable, a way to forget about a bad work day or a pile of bills to pay and see the grand spectacle of what is possible beyond the walls that surround us. Interstellar delivered everything I could have hoped for and more.”
“One of the most satisfying, well-paced and beautifully directed blockbusters since Jurassic Park. A genuine spectacle of humility. … I almost feel like people have been conditioned to the explosive banality of contemporary tentpoles, but if any $200-million monster movie is going to feel like a throwback, this is as fitting a choice as any.”
“People could not get enough of Kevin McAllister and his antics—so enamored was the American public that Home Alone continued to pop up in the box office top ten well into June 1991. It was a force to be reckoned with, grabbing the zeitgeist by the throat and biting down … It became an instant and permanent part of the cultural consciousness. It is also terrible.”
“In the middle of a showdown with the bad guys in downtown Metropolis with people everywhere, a flaming truck or some other huge thing is thrown towards Superman who is standing in front of a building. A building presumably filled with people. Superman jumps out of the way. He jumps out of the way. Superman.”
“When I was a little kid, growing up solidly middle class, I had a lot of toys. But my parents, mindful of the expanding clutter that comes from the accumulation of ‘stuff’, presented me with an ultimatum: if I went long enough without playing with my toys then I’d have to get rid of them before I could get any new ones. They didn’t care what I did with them: throw them out, sell them at a yard sale, give them away to Goodwill… it didn’t matter to them. However the message was clear. Inactivity meant they were gone.”
“A terribly written and horribly executed premise inflated to epic proportions which—apart from confirming that expanding this single-film story into three features was indeed a stupid move by the filmmakers—also brings the Middle-Earth franchise to its all-time low, for there is nothing in this second sequel that works out in its favour.”
He often played creeps, but he rarely played them creepily. His metier was human loneliness—the terrible uncinematic kind that has very little to do with high-noon heroism and everything to do with everyday empathy—and the necessary curse of human self-knowledge. He held up a mirror to those who could barely stand to look at themselves and invited us not only to take a peek but to see someone we recognized. —Tom Junod, Esquire
Play video Watch the tribute video by Caleb Slain
A sober man’s study of an intoxicated one. … Wolf is bromantic bacchanal as spiritual purge; that inspired last shot could be framed and titled “Let Us Prey”. I hope the movie’s rep rises in retrospect. — Account removed
Very few people would try to upstage fireworks, and probably only Robin Williams could have succeeded. I doubt anyone asked him for his play-by-play, an impromptu performance for a small, captive group, and I can’t say if it arose from inspiration or compulsion. Maybe there’s not really a difference. Whether or not anyone expected him to be, and maybe whether or not he entirely wanted to be, he was on. —A.O. Scott, NY Times
Play video Robin Williams – In Motion by Tony Zhou
*Sorry Stan Lee, cameos don’t count!
The appearance of the title in gigantic letters, as Quill throws out his arms to Come and Get Your Love’s first “Heyyyy!”, may be the most purely joyous moment I’ve experienced at the movies all year. Just wish the commitment to that tone had been absolute. —
Mike D'Angelo
Paints atheists as embittered ex-Christians who hate religion and all religious people. … This is future cult film level hilarity going on here. —
Lisa the Beauty Queen
The film opens with a shot of an airplane tail fin “swimming” through clouds, an explicit homage to Airplane’s homage to Jaws. This reference … perfectly embodies exactly how derivative and schlocky the rest of the movie is going to be. —
A poorly conceived, drawn-out shitfest that masquerades its religious grandstanding as [an] aviation action thriller. … Everything here is a played-out cliché, or predictable stereotype. —
Jonathan Paula 📸
A revelatory, tour de force performance from Cliff Curtis as the titular Dark Horse, in a story told with raw emotional honesty. —
Chris Hormann
See the full list for 2015 and beyond…
Each year, Letterboxd member David Ehrlich compiles a video countdown of his favorite films from the past twelve months. This year’s countdown is presented by the fantastic Little White Lies magazine, where David is Editor-at-Large. Turn down the house lights and enjoy his lovingly crafted 2014 retrospective…
A huge, heartfelt thank you to the entire Letterboxd community from all of us here at HQ. We’re continually in awe of the energy and inspiration you bring to this endeavour, and we can’t wait to share our plans for 2015 with you.
And if you’d like your own, personalized year in review summary like this or this, these are available to all paid members right here, and you’ll be supporting the site while you bathe in stats!
See the full lists for each category, read the news post and please share this page to Twitter, Facebook, infinity and beyond!
